58 Weeks Past the Cross – The End

I’d imagine that it might surprise you to learn that I’m a “gamer”. I am. I picked it up about 20 years ago, and find it a nice way to relieve stress and exercise my gray matter. My newest endeavor has me building settlements in a post-apocalyptic Boston. It’s a win-win for me; a game and an engagement of my imagination. I’ve always been interested in things “end of day”. It began when I was young, and I would “disappear” into the woods for hours on my horse. I would always pretend the world had ended, and that my imaginary pal and I were it. I don’t believe there is a movie that presents an “EOD” (Ending of Days) story-line that I haven’t seen. It’s just an interest of mine, seeing how others imagine the day when everything will change.

I didn’t pay much attention to what this time will look like When I was a Christian sitting under the “pre-trib rapture” doctrine. I just thought “Hmm, guess I won’t around for the “survival challenge”! Then, I saw that rapture doctrine be debunked by Tanakh. Not many Scriptures describe what those days will look like, but the descriptions we do get are vivid. The “end times” didn’t concern me much in my “Messianic” days, though, either. I still believed the sorting and sifting would be done according to the work of Jesus (Yeshua) and not according to my own deeds. Now I stand here without the shadow of the cross “covering” me. I stand without having taken a blood bath. I stand accountable and responsible. Perhaps even more so than someone who doesn’t read Scripture or call YHVH “Father”. A sobering thought, to be sure. One worth reflecting on. I’m accountable as an individual, as a member of my “bloodline” and as a citizen in the nation in which I live. Above it all, though, I am accountable to uphold my part the covenant into which I entered freely in the Mt Sanai of my spirit.

Perhaps the most dangerous doctrine we sat under in Christianity is that there is “nothing we can do”. Ours is a God who demands the “doing” and has set a line of the consequences out for those who won’t “do”. That could be a post in itself. Perhaps it will be one day, but I’m going back to my game for today. In my game play, as I mentioned, I am prompted to think about the days in which everything will change. In my game travels, I come across skeletons still positioned where they were when the fictional bombs hit. Almost all are clutching something in their hand. I’ve seen them with a picture frame or a bottle of alcohol. A teddy bear or a handful of “pre-war” money. With drugs or a weapon. It made me wonder what someone might find clamped in my hand when who I am leaves this coat of flesh. Have you ever wondered what might be found in yours? I chuckle at my game sometimes for what I find them with, but am reminded that each of has our own “security blanket”. If it’s not already, may Scripture be yours and mine. My pretend people have lookout posts, food stockpiles and high security, but are ultimately raided by a group looking for those exact things. Will it be that way in our own world, which seems to be coming under a bigger shadow of darkness every day? Truly, I shudder to think. But I do not fear.

The television news wants me to fear, but I won’t. Some people in my newsfeed are trapped in fear’s embrace, but I am not. When I turn to Scripture for answers, I find that my hope is in YHVH. He is my source and my substance, His word, my light in dark times. I will not fear. He Alone is my Strong Tower, I will abide in Him and go about “doing”. I still watch the “EOD” movies (YaY! Another one is coming out soon) and I will still play “EOD” video games, but I will forever look at both through this “New Lens”! No matter what comes our way (and come it will) nothing will stop God’s appointed King from taking his throne and dealing out justice according to the outline of Torah. If we ever have to be found with something clutched in skeletal hands, may that be what is is for us….His Word!

“See” you soon, friends. Live like what you do matters, because it does!